Game #81 Pens vs. Rangers

The New York Rangers stroll into CONSOl Energy Center for the final meeting of the regular season with the Pittsburgh Penguins, and basically have little to play for having locked up the number 1 seed for the Eastern Conference Playoffs. 

Pittsburgh Penguins (49-25-6, 104pts 4th Eastern Conference) vs. New York Rangers (51-22-7, 109 points, 1st Eastern Conference)

CONSOL Energy Center, Pittsburgh, PA

7:30 PM--ROOT Sports, NBCSN, Penguins 24/7, 105.9 FM

While the Rangers have literally nothing to play for, the Penguins do have something on the line. With a win in any fashion, the Pens will clinch the 4th seed for the Eastern Conference playoffs and home ice for at least the first round.  

Not playing for the Penguins are defenseman Matt Niskanen (upper body), forwards James Neal (lower body) and Steve Sullivan (lower body).  All three players are likely to miss the Flyers game and regular season finale on Saturday afternoon as well.  

Eric Tangradi will fill in for Sullivan and skate on a line with Penguins Captain Sidney Crosby. This will be Tangradi's biggest opportunity yet, playing on a line with Sid and against a Rangers team with nothing to play for but consistency. Richard Park is likely to take Neal's place on Evgeni Malkin's line. At least these were the lines at today's morning skate.  

The goalie matchup will be Marc-Andre Fleury (41-17-4, 9.13 SV%, 2.37 GAA) for the Penguins and Martin Biron (12-5-2, .906 SV%, 2.38 GAA) for the Rangers. 

Things to Look For

Evgeni Malkin needs two goals to reach the 50 goal plateau.  

The Pens will look to be more sound structurally in the first two thirds of the ice to limit scoring chances for the Rangers. They were better in Boston, but there were still some plays that gave the Bruins chances and Brent Johnson bailed them out.